The present invention relates to a rigid hinged-lid cigarette packet.
In particular, the present invention relates to a rigid cigarette packet comprising a cup-shaped bottom portion or container and a top lid joined to each other by a hinge, and which is formed from a preweakened flat blank of cardboard or similar.
Rigid hinged-lid cigarette packets are normally in the shape of a rectangular-section parallelepiped, and comprise two major lateral wallsxe2x80x94defined by a front wall and a rear wallxe2x80x94and two minor lateral walls, each connected to both the major lateral walls at respective sharp right-angle longitudinal edges.
Rigid packets of the above type have several drawbacks, by being nonanatomical in shape and resulting in rapid wear of clothing fabrics with which they come into contact.
Moreover, rigid, rectangular-section, parallelepiped-shaped packets are fairly rigid at the minor lateral walls and along the right-angle longitudinal edges, but fairly weak at the major lateral walls, which have a tendency to deform inwards when a transparent overwrapping of cellophane is applied and shrunk (by the application of heat) about the packet.
Inward deformation of the major lateral walls, produced by the inward thrust exerted on the packet by the transparent overwrapping, permanently compresses the cigarettes inside the packet, making it very difficult for the user to extract the first cigarette from the packet. Moreover, deformation of the major lateral walls, and in particular the rear one, deforms the hinge joining the lid to the bottom portion, so that, when the transparent overwrapping is opened (normally torn open), the lid can only be raised easily by the user taking the whole overwrapping off the packet.
The above drawbacks are at least partly solved by rounded- or beveled-edged packets of the type described in patents EP-B1-0204933 and EP-B1-0205766 respectively. Rounded- or beveled-edged packets are also described in DE-A1-19637259, which relates to a hard packet for cigarettes having a hinged lid extending on one side and being diagonally off-center; this lid forms in the region of an end wall of the packet a line joint as a hinged connection to join the hinged lid to the remaining portion of the packet.
Generally speaking, however, both rounded- or beveled-edged packets, to be manufactured fairly accurately, call for special machines of the type described in patents EP-B1-0205894 and EP-B1-0200087, which are fairly slow and allow of absolutely no flexibility, i.e. cannot be used for producing packets other than the types mentioned.
As a result, rounded- or beveled-edged packets are extremely expensive to produce.
Besides being expensive to produce, rounded-edged packets also have a further drawback: that of the lid failing to accurately close the bottom cup-shaped container, on account of the difficulty posed in forming two coincident rounded edges. Moreover, at the rounded edges of the top and bottom walls, the transparent overwrapping sheet of cellophane, as opposed to following the outer shape of the packet, forms sharp edges which are particularly rigid and project outwards of the packet, and, besides being unsightly, result in rapid wear of clothing fabrics with which they come into contact.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rigid, hinged-lid cigarette packet designed to eliminate the aforementioned drawbacks.
More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a rigid, hinged-lid cigarette packet, which:
at the overwrapping stage, does not compress the group of cigarettes inside, thus enabling troublefree extraction of the first cigarette when the packet is opened;
comprises a hinge so located as to be substantially undeformable by application of the transparent overwrapping;
does not result in rapid wear of clothing fabrics with which the packet comes into contact; and
can be produced easily, cheaply and quickly on, and with only minor alterations to, a packing machine substantially of the type used to produce rectangular-section parallelepiped-shaped packets.
According to the present invention, there is provided a rigid, hinged-lid cigarette packet as recited by claim 1.